Tears and Surf
by Jack E. Peace
Summary: (MTV's Wuthering Heights) Set soon after Cate wakes after the accident, she leaves the Linton estate and sits down by the sea to think about Heath and everything she's lost.


Disclaimer: The characters from the film/book don't belong to me.   
  
A/N: Okay, MTV finally did something right when they made this movie. "Wuthering Heights" totally kicked butt! I love that movie! So, here's a fic about it, there might be more but I just feel the need to write one. This is dedicated for a good friend who is moving at the end of the week and I didn't really realize how sad it is. Please read and review and enjoy.   
  
Tears and Surf   
  
Cate Hernshaw pushed the French doors aside and stepped out onto the balcony, passing through the fluttering silk curtains that blew past her. The wind was gentle this morning, with a hint of coolness laced inside it and she gratefully let it play with her curly hair, pushing it around her face and cheeks. She walked until she stood at the edge of the balcony, fingers gently wrapping around the cool metal support beams. Cate found that she was most happy when she was gazing out into the ocean, as she was now, watching the waves swell and fall, crashing against the rocks. The ocean was her lullaby, the music that had lulled her to sleep when her mother had left them.   
  
The ocean was calm today, like the weather, the waves small and gentle, silently fanning out against the weathering rocks along the coast. Cate longed to slip into the water, let the waves wash against her feet and legs but she knew that she would not be allowed out of the house. Her temporary guardians believed that she was still too weak from the recent car accident to be allowed anywhere but her bedroom but the walls and beautiful furniture was slowly driving her crazy. She longed for something more, longed for the ocean that she had played in since she was a child.   
  
Staring at the crystal waters, Cate realized how much she wanted to be a child once again, sitting in her mother's lap, listening to her talk of things that made no sense to her and that she would later forget. She had very few memories of her life when her mother was still around, most of her recollections starting when her father brought Heath home all those years ago. Cate would often imagine that that was the night her life truly began, though she knew that thought was foolish.   
  
Unable to contain herself any longer, Cate began to gauge how easy it would be for her to climb from the balcony and down onto the ground level, slinking off toward the ocean. Whether she was still weak or not didn't matter; the sea, after all, seemed to have certain healing powers. Taking a deep breath, she hung herself slightly over the railing, grinning when she noticed that the balcony was grounded to the ground and not to the side of the house.   
  
Cate slipped slowly over the railing, her white nightgown blowing around her knees, nearly making her lose her footing but she had scaled the rocks around The Heights enough times to trust herself. She edged slowly across the width of the balcony, dipping and transferring her grip to the straight metal pole that would take her to the ground. She felt a rush of dizziness but managed to hold on until it passed; for a brief second, Cate wondered if it was really a good idea to be climbing down but knew that she had come too far to turn back.   
  
Slowly, Cate shimmed down the pole and felt relieved when her bare feet dropped into warm sand. She turned and faced the ocean once more, pushing her hair away from her face as she gazed toward the horizon. Feeling like a mischievous child once again, she skipped across the spacious 'backyard', glancing around self-consciously once or twice.  
  
Cate slipped down into the sand-dunes and saw grass, slowly leaving the estate behind her. For a moment, she felt like she was living her old life again, the life where she still lived in The Heights with her father and her brother and when her relationship with Heath had been much simpler. She remembered the afternoons she and Heath would spend in the surf, laughing and simply pleased to be together.   
  
She stumbled slightly, cutting the top of her foot upon the saw grass as she tripped, gritting her teeth against the sharp pain. Cate did her best to ignore the feeling as she continued downward, finally leaving the dunes and grass behind and arriving at the flat beach. The sand was unmarred by footprints and she felt, for a moment, like a trespasser but pushed that thought quickly aside.   
  
Cate stopped halfway toward the ocean, watching the surf like she had from the balcony, smelling the salt and feeling the spray against her face, letting it sink into her pores. Her father had always told her that she had soft skin because of the ocean water but she wasn't ever sure if she really believed him. Cate chewed on her bottom lip, feeling the gap her father had left growing slightly.   
  
A group of rocks lay off to her right and Cate headed over to them, climbing them slowly, ignoring the cut in her foot, until she was at the very top. From here, she could see for miles ahead of her, as she always could on a clear day. She pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them, folding herself up slightly.   
  
For a moment, she imagined Heath beside her, lightly strumming his guitar, in the process of writing another love song in her name. "Tell me again where you come from." She whispered to herself, vaguely aware of her mouth moving at all.   
  
She half expected Heath to answer her, telling her now that his father was a chief in Paris and his mother was a grand painter of some kind. Heath had asked her that some question once but she was unable to be as inventive as he was. "My father was a scattered carpenter who loved the ocean and my mother was a woman who loved to paint but one day left us." She had told him, no longer wanting to play the game. It was much better when she asked the question, it was their secret game.   
  
Cate felt tears spring unbidden in her eyes, the first time since she had woken up from her three-day coma after the accident. The tears were for her mother, for her father, for Heath and for herself. She had lost so much and had lost the two most important people at nearly the same time, when she had needed them both so much. "Tell me where you come from," Cate mumbled again, speaking to a Heath that wasn't there, "tell me where you are."   
  
She got no answer other then that of the surf, pounding against the rocks that she now sat on. Cate blinked, attempting to push her tears away but that action only brought on more. Alone, with only the ocean for company, she finally let herself cry, for everything that she had lost and what she would never have. "Where do you come from?" She cried, close to shouting, knowing that she would probably never get an answer to that question again.   
  
But she realized, suddenly, that she was asking the wrong question. Cate wanted to know where Heath come from but she wanted even more to know where he was now. Why he had left her all alone and why he wanted to know where she came from.   
  
There was no answer to any of her questions, only her tears and the surf. 


End file.
